More Trouble For Google In Europe; Google Gets A Buy Button

And you thought viewability was the big mobile issue of the day? If the Financial Times’ anonymous European telco source is correct, mobile operators might take the nuclear option and detonate all mobile ads from their networks. (In-feed ads from Facebook and Twitter will be unscathed.) The real target, of course, is Google, which is investing and banking big on mobile revenue. The end game, according to the FT’s source, is to drag Google kicking and screaming to the negotiating table so the carriers can catch more coin. Of course, those telcos could very well be poking a dragon that – let’s be honest – is already wide awake regarding the competitive threat it poses: “The executive … acknowledged that targeting Google could be risky from both a legal and public relations perspective.”

More Buy Buttons

In a move that pits it against marketplace powerhouses like Amazon and eBay, Google will roll out a ‘Buy Button’ on certain mobile search queries, as reported by the WSJ. The user, even after clicking on a product, will remain on Google’s property (as opposed to the current system, where a user is sent to a retailer’s site and Google takes a cut). “To mollify retailers’ concerns ... Retailers will get address information and likely email addresses for future marketing efforts.” The product pages will also be heavily branded by the retailer. The move is mobile-focused, making up for the fact that more people search on mobile, but that mobile ads are less expensive and less effective for sales.

Viewable Corn Flakes

Speaking at the Digiday Programmatic Summit in Austin late last week, Kellogg’s senior manager of paid digital media spelled out his company’s approach to programmatic and viewability. “We’re not just asking for viewability because we read it in an article at some point; we kind of wrote the book for ourselves internally. Every additional 5% of viewability drives X number ROI,” he said. “And that’s why we hold it so dear and so true – because we’ve seen the difference.” More via Digiday.

Man Vs. Mobile Machine

Bot detection firm Distil Networks claims that only 41% of web traffic comes from humans. In a report last week, it said that “bad bots” drive 22% of all Internet traffic, smaller websites are most at risk and digital publishers as a whole host 32% of all bot traffic. “For the first time in history, mobile bad bot traffic makes up a significant portion of overall bad bot traffic, having increased tenfold over the past year,” said Distil Networks CEO Rami Essaid. “Mobile bots make up less than 10% of the total bots, creating a greenfield of opportunity for the bad bot landscape to more than double very quickly.” Read the release.